Hello! I have a 15 gallon tank with 6 Glo Tetras. I cycled the tank for about 1.5 months and added the fish when the water was ready. After a few days, I noticed white spots on 1 fish, then more the following day. Treated the tank for Ich and all the spots are gone. Now I’m dealing with a nitrite spike. Nitrites were around 1-2 ppm and nitrates were at about 20ppm. I did a 50% water change and brought the nitrites down to about .25-.50ppm. I also added some aquarium salt and healthy bacteria. Do I continue to do water changes and if yes, how much? The smallest fish seems stressed. He’s hanging out at the top and swimming erratically.
Nitrite Spike
- Thread starter AshleyD
- Start date
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Looks like your ich medication has crashed your cycle. Medication has a tendancy to do that, if its anti biotic it doesnt differentiate between killing off good bacteria and harmful bacteria.
You need to recycle the tank, so that means lots of water changes to control waste until your cycle re-establishes. Are you seeing any ammonia in your tests? Target should be to keep ammonia + nitrite combined no higher than 0.5ppm. Do whatever water changes are required to keep water parameters no higher than this target level. This could mean doing them daily to start will, but as your cycle establishes the frequency and volume of changes should reduce over a number of weeks until you no longer see any ammonia or nitrite in your testing.
You need to recycle the tank, so that means lots of water changes to control waste until your cycle re-establishes. Are you seeing any ammonia in your tests? Target should be to keep ammonia + nitrite combined no higher than 0.5ppm. Do whatever water changes are required to keep water parameters no higher than this target level. This could mean doing them daily to start will, but as your cycle establishes the frequency and volume of changes should reduce over a number of weeks until you no longer see any ammonia or nitrite in your testing.
That should be determined by your daily water test.
If your ammonia + nitrite combined is 0.5ppm or less then no need to change and water.
If you ammonia + nitrite combined is 0.75ppm (eg. 0.25 ammonia and 0.5 nitrite or 0 ammonia and 0.75 nitrite) then change 1/3 of the water.
If your ammonia + nitrite combined is 1ppm then change 1/2 the water.
This will get those parameters to a relatively safe level and leave enough waste to recycle your tank.
If parameters are worse than 1ppm combined, you may need to do multiple water changes in a day. You may want to up your water testing to a couple of times a day.
If your ammonia + nitrite combined is 0.5ppm or less then no need to change and water.
If you ammonia + nitrite combined is 0.75ppm (eg. 0.25 ammonia and 0.5 nitrite or 0 ammonia and 0.75 nitrite) then change 1/3 of the water.
If your ammonia + nitrite combined is 1ppm then change 1/2 the water.
This will get those parameters to a relatively safe level and leave enough waste to recycle your tank.
If parameters are worse than 1ppm combined, you may need to do multiple water changes in a day. You may want to up your water testing to a couple of times a day.
